1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicular rear seat of the type including a seat back provided at a rear portion of a seat cushion supported on an elevated step portion of a stepped floor in such a fashion that the seat back is capable of being stood up and laid down. When the seat back is laid down, the reverse surface of the seat back can be used as a luggage supportive floor surface.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various vehicular rear seats are known in which a seat back is provided at a rear portion of a seat cushion supported on an elevated step portion of a stepped floor such that the seat back is capable of being stood up and laid down, and in which when the seat cushion is swung up with a front portion thereof facing down and the seat back is laid down forward, the reverse surface of the seat back can be used as a luggage supportive floor surface, for example, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Hei 3-189245.
However, this type of conventional vehicular rear seat has problems as follows. For example, when the seat cushion is swung up with the front portion thereof facing down, a space is left between the seat cushion and the front wall surface of the elevated step portion of the floor so that the seat cushion is not firmly maintained in a precise upstanding portion. If quick or panic braking is applied or the vehicle receives an impact from the forward direction so that a luggage piece moves forward on the luggage supportive floor surface, then the luggage piece, if it is small, may fall into the space and, if it is large, may apply a large load to a front seat via the seat cushion held in the upstanding state, thus impeding driving. To eliminate such problems, it becomes necessary to provide reinforcing members, such as a belt, a link or the like, for fixing the seat cushion in the upstanding state, thus causing another problem of structure complication.